Unless a player has a dedicated space with noise containment, one of the difficulties in practicing drums with cymbals is the volume of the instruments when played. Unlike a guitar, bass, electronic keyboard or the like, where the player can modulate volume, it is difficult to modulate the volume of drums and cymbals while retaining a realistic feel.
One advance in lowering the volume to practice drums is found in the BLACK HOLE system from RTOM Corporation, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,498,500 and RE43,885, which utilizes tensioned mesh drumheads installed over acoustic drums or drumheads. This allows the user to experience the feel of a tensioned drumhead and achieve a sound quality and tone similar to that of the acoustic drum over which the tensioned mesh drumhead is mounted, but at a lower volume. This result is achieved by the reduced air moved by the mesh drumhead that creates a sympathetic response from the acoustic drumhead, but without the volume generated if the acoustic drumhead were struck directly.
This effect, however, cannot be replicated in cymbals while maintaining the feel of striking a cymbal due to the metal composition of a cymbal.
Nonetheless, other efforts have been made to create a cymbal that can be played at reduced volumes. These include Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2010072510 and 11184459, which describe the use of placing holes in the cymbals. With respect to the use of perforations in cymbals, U.S. Pat. Nos. D597589 and D607921 show specific patterns of holes for use in electronic cymbals.
However, the prior art has not been able to come up with a low volume cymbal that has the a similar feel and sound as achieved when striking a traditional cymbal.